One of the many questions that can be probed more effectively by the amazingly informative new tool provided by SkiTalk member @AlexisLD is, "How different are men's and women's skis, really?" Taking a page out of @Noodler 's book I just tossed in a couple of sibling pairs to see what would happen. (Of course you have to work with the particular models and lengths that are in the database, so pure apples-to-apples is not strictly possible.) In this case it was Stormrider & Nela + Mantra & Secret. Bottom line, according to these numbers the Stormrider 95 and the Nela 96 are so similar in most ways as to be nearly indistinguishable. Both are middle of the road in bending stiffness and a bit above average in torsional stiffness. Their rocker profiles are also nearly identical. The Mantra/Secret pair is much stiffer, not to my surprise. (Always found the Kendos and Mantras planky. YMMV.) Interestingly the Secret appears stiffer longitudinally and torsionally than the Mantra in this length (170). (Assuming that this is by design, I'd speculate that Volkl figures that women on the 170 will be at the top of the women's weight range whereas men on the 170 would be near the bottom of the men's weight range.)
See the full analysis here.
Stiffness comparison:
See the full analysis here.
Stiffness comparison: